Supporters gather at the ACT Legislative Assembly. Photo: ACTCOSS.
ACT for Community supporters – representing more than 80 ACT community organisations – this month gathered at the ACT Legislative Assembly. We weren’t there for show. We came with a clear and urgent message: the time for symbolic support is over. We need real investment.
While it’s encouraging to see the community sector’s importance acknowledged in the chamber, the real stories from the ground – of services under immense strain – are only just beginning to be told.
For too long, the community sector has been underfunded, forcing organisations to operate with insufficient staffing levels, inadequate facilities and growing waitlists. This isn’t sustainable. And it isn’t fair – to the workers, the volunteers, or the people they support.
In my previous piece, I promised readers would hear directly from the front lines. Since then, articles from the Canberra Rape Crisis Centre, Uniting, Women’s Legal Centre and Volunteering ACT have painted a sobering picture – not just of organisations at breaking point, but of lives at risk if government fails to act. In the coming weeks, more community organisations will continue to share what’s at stake if this government fails to invest.
This urgency is backed by data – this year more than half of the community sector’s pre-budget submissions warned that current funding failed to match growing demand and the increase in Canberra’s population. The government’s response – citing a near-billion-dollar deficit – has left many fearing the worst.
Make no mistake, this budget needs to do more than avoid cuts to essential community services, it needs to make long-overdue new investments.
How did we get here? Demand for housing support, mental health care, domestic violence services and crisis programs has skyrocketed but government funding has not kept pace. Between 2009–10 and 2022–23, investment in community services as a share of total ACT Government expenditure fell by 30 per cent. Yes, you read that right – a 30 per cent drop in relative funding.
Over that same period, the ACT population grew by nearly 30 per cent.
While the government expanded investment it its own services to reflect this growth, funding for the community sector hasn’t followed suit. The maths doesn’t lie: when demand rises and investment falls, the result is a sector on the brink.
Let’s be honest: underfunding community services doesn’t save money, it delays costs until they show up in our hospitals, our emergency rooms, our police stations. In delaying these costs, government also increases their size.
Investing in early support is not just the right thing to do morally, it’s also one of the smartest economic decisions the government can make.
This is more than a budget issue. It’s a question of what kind of Canberra we want to live in. I want a city where people can get help when they need it – whether they’re fleeing violence, struggling with mental health, or trying to keep a roof over their heads.
Community services are essential infrastructure. They’re as vital to Canberra’s future as roads, schools and hospitals. If we allow them to crumble, the long-term costs – economic and human – will be far greater.
The question before the government is not whether we can afford to fund the community sector, but whether we can afford not to.
Michelle Barclay is the Head of Sector Development and Engagement at the ACT Council of Social Services (ACTCOSS) and lead coordinator of the ACT for Community campaign.
